My US book tour of September and October 2012 took me to four cities. I started off in Boston where The World Peace Foundation at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University invited me to give a talk.
The World Peace Foundation organised my book tour and asked no less than five academics to review my book. I also wrote a response to those reviews. I would like to thank Alex de Waal, Bridget Conley and Lisa Avery of
The World Peace Foundation for all their help, as well as the engaged
and intelligent students of Tufts University who came to my talks, and
asked such interesting and challenging questions.
The book event started with a book-signing in The Hall of Flags at The Fletcher School.
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| This photo was taken by Geoff Marsh, The Fletcher School |
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| This photo was taken by Geoff Marsh, The Fletcher School |
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| This photo was taken by Geoff Marsh, The Fletcher School |
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| By chance, the Somali flag was hanging near to where I signed my books |
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| Signing books for students |
We
then moved to a lecture theatre for the presentation and discussion. I
showed some photos from my recent trip to Somalia and Somaliland, some
of which I hoped would show that there is more to the 'Somali story'
than hunger, war, piracy and Al Qaeda, even though all of those things
are also present.
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| Armed man in Mogadishu |
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| Destroyed parliament in central Mogadishu |
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| Opening of the Coca Cola factory in Somaliland |
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| The Somaliland Circus |
I
then took the beautiful train journey from Boston to New Haven,
whizzing through autumn woodland and past grand properties on the coast,
sailboats bobbing in the ocean. My second talk was at Yale University,
where I was delighted to see several Somalis in the audience, some of
whom had driven in from the town of Hartford, where there is a
substantial Somali community.
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| Yale |
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| Some Somali members of the Yale audience |
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| Some Somali members of the Yale audience |
It
is election season in the US so there are lots of poster, billboards,
signs, adverts and endless TV and radio talk about Obama and Romney. I
saw this giant anti-Obama billboard...
... in the grounds of this petrol station:
Many people enthusiastically display their political affiliations on their front lawns:
After New Haven, I
took the train to Washington DC. Some of the poorer neighbourhoods of
some of the towns I passed, especially Baltimore, somehow reminded me of
parts of Mogadishu. A group of Somalis met me at the grand Union
Station in Washington and looked after me the whole time I was in the
city. I spoke at the United States Institute of Peace, which is directly
opposite the State Department.
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| The United States Institue of Peace is a beautiful building. The roof looks like the wings of a dove. |
The event, called Whither Somalia?, was
so full there had to be an 'overspill room'. The Somali activist, Sadia
Ahmed and Deputy Director of the Atlantic Council's Michael S Ansari
Africa Centre, Bronwyn Bruton, were on the panel. The chair was Jonathan Temin of the United States Institute of Peace.
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| Speaking at the United States Institute of Peace |
I then headed for New York city where I first spoke at the Centre on Global Counterterrorism Cooperation.
This was a closed event. The Somali ambassador to the United Nations
was there, as were Kenyan representatives at the UN. The meeting was
chaired by Liat Shetret of CGCC.
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| The gardens behind Quaker House, right in the heart of New York city. |
This was an open event, attended by different countries' representatives to the UN, NGO officials and friends. The US academic Ken Menkhaus, who has written extensively on Somalia, was the discussant.
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| Ken Menkhaus and me on the sofa in Quaker House |
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| Good friends came to the event |
©Mary Harper
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